Bloopers and Embarrassing Moments

This week is all about mistakes we’ve made. I’m sure I made plenty over the last year, but thankfully I don’t remember them. As far as I know, there is one typo in my printed book. My friend, Lindsay, is holding onto that information for me, with strict instructions not to say more until I ask.

But one funny thing that happened to me in the process, is something that happened with my agent. When we learned that my release was moved to May, a good friend of mine told me “Michelle Obama’s book is coming out in May. You want to be careful not to be too close to her release because all publicity will go to her.” Which, I guess is good advice. When I sent that thought to my agent, I’m sure she rolled her eyes and laughed a little bit with her assistant before sending me the following response: I think we need to talk about expectations… That is why I love my agent. She has a way of telling me what I need to hear without crushing my little writer’s ego.

Mistakes will happen. You will say or do the wrong thing at the wrong time. Just get up and try again. Hopefully, people will eventually forget that, for five minutes, I put myself in the same lane as Michelle Obama.

Born and raised in Santa Monica, California, Julie Clark grew up reading books on the beach while everyone else surfed. After attending college at University of the Pacific, and a brief stint working in the athletic department at University of California, Berkeley, she returned home to Santa Monica to teach. She now lives there with her two young sons and a golden doodle with poor impulse control. Her debut, THE ONES WE CHOOSE, will be published by Gallery/Simon & Schuster in May 2018.